


The One Who Got Away

by callmeonetrack



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: 1940s, Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe - Noir, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-13
Updated: 2017-01-13
Packaged: 2018-09-17 05:11:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9306749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callmeonetrack/pseuds/callmeonetrack
Summary: Lee's a gumshoe and Kara's the dame that makes him dizzy. (A Choose-your-own-ending Story!)





	1. Chapter 1

It’d been six days since the dame disappeared without a trace.

Lee Adama pulled a flask from the inside pocket of his trench and took a sip, hissing as the rotgut moonshine burned a path down the back of his throat. He kicked his feet up on the desk and pulled out his last cigar, biting off the tip. The tarnished metal lighter, a gift from his estranged father in better days, flickered to life and he touched the flame to the tobacco, inhaling deeply. Lee tilted his head back, pursed his mouth and let the smoke drift towards the sagging, water-stained ceiling in perfect round Os. He closed his eyes.

Kara Thrace was driving him insane. Beyond insane.

The bird had stepped through the door of his detective agency three weeks ago, looking like sin on stems. Great stems, in fact. Hell, great everything. Curves in all the right places and she knew how to use ‘em. He’d let his eyes roam: porcelain skin, golden eyes, platinum hair and cherry red lips that could make a monk pray a thousand hail marys. She’d winked at him when he’d finished staring.

_“I’m hoping you can help me, detective.” Her voice had been soft but steely, not that breathy tone most daisies used on him._

_Sharp blue eyes flicked to her empty ring finger. He raised a brow. “Boyfriend trouble?” It usually was when they looked like this._

_Those red lips curved, wide and supple and filling his head with a blue streak vivid enough to make him shift in his chair. “Not this time,” she said, clearly amused. “I’m looking for something.”_

_“Aren’t we all, dollface?” He’d grinned, slick and easy, and she didn’t blink. “What’s your name?”_

_She frowned. “Kara. Kara Thrace,” she’d held out a hand, unpolished nails but neat and clean. He didn’t normally press flesh with dames—not this way anyway—but he’d taken it. Her grip had been stronger than most goons he’d met in dark alleys._

_“Pleasure, Ms. Thrace.”_

_“Please, Kara.” She sat down without invitation, her dress riding high on her thighs as she crossed her pins. The edge of a garter peeked out from under her hem._

_“Kara.” He liked the way it rolled off his tongue. “So what is it you’re looking for?”_

_“An arrow.”_

_He blinked. “Arrow?” Lee lifted his hand, pointed it through the air and whistled. “As in archery?”_

_“Yes. Well, not exactly,” She paused, as if reluctant to say more. “You may have heard of it. The Arrow of Apollo.”_

_Lee’s mouth dropped open, his eyebrows rising. The Arrow of Apollo was a myth, a legend. Everyone’d heard of it. Ain’t nobody’d seen it though, ‘cept in textbooks and cheap copies from the museum. His eyes narrowed._

_“Hey, this some kind of flimflam you’re pulling?” Lee looked at her again, searching for signs that this chick was a hophead or hitting the pipe. Didn’t look strung out though. “I ain’t looking for no wild goose chase.”_

_“I know it exists.” She said urgently, tongue peeking out to swipe across her lips. “I held it once, in my hand. It was the key to…” Kara trailed off, those golden eyes shimmering, brimming with salty liquid suddenly. “Everything.”_

_He tilted his head, trying to figure if she was stringin’ him, playing him for a sucker. But there was something about her eyes; this Kara Thrace was a believer. Lee sighed. The skirt was on the square. He’d bet a yard on it._

_“Alright, so say this Arrow really does exist,” he paused. “What makes you think I’m your man?”_

_She smiled then, enigmatic enough to beat the Mona Lisa. In all his years as a private dick, he’d never seen a dame look like that before. It was sad and happy at once and there was something about it that reached right through him, like a hand squeezing his chest, where his ole’ pump was ticking._

_“Because there’s no takebacks.”_

_She said it like it was supposed to mean something to him, but damned if he knew what it was. He stared at her blankly, and watched her mug fall, like she was disappointed or something. Lee shook his head. He’d never met this broad before but the way she was acting…it was strange. He had half a mind to toss her out on her very shapely rear. This one was trouble, he could tell._

_She leaned forward, giving him one helluva view, and said “I can make it worth your while.” His eyes widened, wondering if she was saying what he thought she was saying. But then Kara opened the small clutch she was holding. Shiny octagonal coins. ones he’d never seen the likes of, glinted at him._

_“That some kind of foreign dough?”_

_She looked down, almost surprised to see what she was flashing, and snapped it closed, fiddled with a zipper on the other side, and pulled out a wad of lettuce. “Sorry. I can pay.”_

_Lee rubbed a hand across his mouth. He couldn’t put a finger on it, but something was definitely hinky here. He should give her the bum rush, but he couldn’t do it. Didn’t hurt that she had plenty of sugar and he was down on his uppers. But that wasn’t all of it. Maybe she was a sharper, playing him for a rube. Getting involved with this Kara Thrace could really jam him up, but he just wasn’t ready to let her walk out that door._

_His hesitation didn’t go unnoticed. Kara reached out, laid a hand on his arm. ‘Please, Lee. I need to find this,” her pretty mouth twisted. She fixed those wide golden eyes on him, even white teeth worrying her lush bottom lip. “I’m all alone here. All I can count on is you and me.”_

He hadn’t had the heart to say no to that.

Now three weeks later, his gumshoeing had paid off. Lee’d gotten a tip from a pigeon that a shady outfit called the Cylons were holding it hostage. It’d been tricky but he’d managed to glom it from their hideout—and that joint was something else, looked like he was inside someone’s stomach, smelled like it too—without getting caught.

But all his hard work had amounted to a big fat goose egg, because Kara Thrace had disappeared. No one picked up at the digits she’d left him. He’d even hit the pavement, wearing a groove in the concrete outside her stoop. No trace of her. It was like she’d just poofed into thin air.

Lee sighed, stubbed his half-smoked cigar out carefully to salvage later and grabbed his fedora off the coat rack behind his head. He placed it over his face, and shifted in his chair, getting comfortable. Might as well grab a cat nap, not like he had anything else to do since his only client had taken a runner.

He was just nodding off, wondering how much that Arrow’d fetch on the black market, when a sharp rap on the door had him jolting upright.

There she was, looking fresher than a new penny, more gorgeous than he’d remembered her. Lee was catching flies. He snapped his jaw shut and stood, circling around the desk till he stood in front of her. “You’re back.”

“I am.” She stepped closer, her eyes searching his face, almost as though she was trying to memorize it. “I missed you.”

His gut flipped at the soft words. They were intimate, strangely so. He barely knew this…Kara, yet he couldn’t deny the past six days had been emptier than a hollow-point bullet.

“I missed you, too,” he found himself saying.

She smiled, then it stretched even wider when he grabbed the case from the corner, held the hard-won prize out to her. The look on her pretty puss was better than the twenty large she’d paid him for his trouble.

“You found it.” Surprise echoed in her words, like she hadn’t thought he could do it.

“’Course I did. Gave you my word, didn’t I?” He gave her a serious look. “Your word, my word. That’s all we got in this crazy world, doll. We don’t have that…” He shook his head, letting the bleak sentiment trail off.

She held out her mitt again, and Lee took it with no hesitation this time, brushing his thumb across her knuckles. They stayed like that for he didn’t know how long. The case should’ve been closed, but Lee wasn’t ready to watch those getaway sticks run out his door just yet.

“So, what’s the grift anyway?” he asked, jerking a nod to the gaudy golden artifact. He hadn’t quite expected it to look so shiny.

She frowned, confused, and he clarified. “What was so important about getting this arrow?”

Kara paused, then shook her head. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

He caught her eyes, leaned closer, close enough to smell the scent of her skin. No cheap perfume for this bird. She smelled like cinnamon and cigars, and something else…motor oil?

“Try me,” he said, voice lower than a speakeasy bass.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Choose your own ending!  
> Click through for the classic noir resolution (Chapter 2) or the happy fluffy supernatural ending (Chapter 3).


	2. Ending #1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the classic noir ending--bittersweet and poignant.

_“Try me,” he said, voice lower than a speakeasy bass._

She’d swallowed hard, a flush heating that china doll skin, but she hadn’t shied away. No, Kara Thrace shifted closer, her breath warm on his skin. “Do you believe in destiny?”

He’d never been a regular at Sunday School, but Lee Adama seemed to be incapable of telling this woman no. So he didn’t answer.

She was something else, this Kara Thrace. He’d never met anyone like her, and he wanted to know her better. Wanted to know everything about her. It wasn’t just curiosity or lust, but something he felt, deep down in his gut. Something he couldn’t put into words.

So he didn’t even try. Instead, Lee took her in his arms and kissed her. She didn’t resist, or shrink back in alarm, like most skirts would’ve if a man they hardly knew took such liberties. Kara laid her hands on his chest, fingers curling around the lapels of his jacket. Her lips parted under his, her tongue snaking into his mouth, sliding against his own. She kissed like hell and tasted like heaven.

He was breathless, heart hammering in his chest, when she finally wrenched away. Her fingers flew to her mouth, eyes round with....shock? fear? shame? “I--I have to go,” she breathed. “I have a plane to catch.”

“What? Now?” Disappointment quickly overtook desire. “You kiss a guy like that and then you take a runner? That’s cold, baby, real cold.”

Her face rippled with immense sadness. “It’s not up to me. I don’t have a choice. My journey here is done,” Lee stared at her, confused by the odd words. Kara tilted her head, and reached those fingers at her mouth out to touch his cheek. “Thank you for everything. It was good to meet you again, Lee Adama.”

He blinked, everything was happening so fast suddenly. “It was good to meet you too, Kara Thrace.” At a loss, Lee held out a hand and Kara took it, wearing a smile tinged with regret. They shook slowly and just as she started to pull away, he squeezed, trapping her, words rushing out. “Will I see you again, someday?”

Kara laughed at the question, even though it was no joking matter, but her eyes were serious as they locked on his. “Oh, I’d count on it.”

She’d pulled away then, wearing that Mona Lisa smile, and he’d let her. Watched her walk those gorgeous gams of hers right out of his office. Right out of his life.

Lee Adama sighed, wearily, rubbed a hand over his mouth and walked back around the desk, to settle into his chair. He kicked his feet up again and tilted the Fedora back down over his face. Visions of blond hair, cherry lips and sparkling golden eyes danced behind his closed eyelids.

Kara Thrace might have been the one who got away, but she wouldn’t be forgotten.


	3. Ending #2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the slightly supernatural happy fluffy ending!

_“Try me,” he said, voice lower than a speakeasy bass._

****

Lee Adama seemed to be incapable of telling this woman no.

It’d taken a whole day of driving to get out to the mountains. They’d trekked up and down what felt like half a dozen peaks before Kara said they’d found the right spot. She hadn’t complained once on the climb, did the whole thing with the arrow strapped to her back, like she was afraid to let it out of her sight. Didn’t make a peep even when a sudden downpour left them looking like half-drowned rats, even though she was wearing this barely-there summer sundress. She took it a far sight better than most dames who looked like she did would’ve handled it, and Lee was impressed. She was a hot ticket, this Kara Thrace. He’d never met anyone like her, and he wanted to know her better. A lot better. Wanted to know everything about her. It wasn’t just curiosity or lust…but something stronger, stirring from deep down in his gut.

She waved him over to where she stood, before a massive arch in the rock wall, and when he planted a shoulder to it, she did the same. Together they moved the heavy stone door, revealing a dusty, dank cavern, full of broken statues. 

“Hey, what is all this, anyway?” he asked, stepping inside and peering at the busted figures. It looked like the place hadn’t seen daylight in a very long time. How had Kara even known it was here? The entry way had been almost hidden completely by the vegetation. A million questions floated through his thick skull.

“These are the ancient gods,” Kara answered, her tone reverent. Lee just shrugged, he’d never really took a shine to Sunday school. He walked over to where Kara stood holding the arrow, in front of a statue of an archer.

“Lee,” she said, her eyes locking on his, giving him the up-and-down. “Does this, any of this, look familiar to you at all?”

“Should it, doll?” 

She frowned, face falling again, and Lee suddenly wanted to lie, just to wipe away that look. Kara looked down, twirled the arrow slowly between her fingers. 

“Kara, I—“

He didn’t get a chance to finish. One minute they were talking, the next Kara was in his arms. Her own were wrapped around him, tight enough to choke a horse. Lee was flummoxed, but he held on. He could feel Kara’s heart pounding in her chest. 

Then suddenly she pulled away, squared her shoulders and muttered something under her breath. “This better frakking work.” Lee could barely make out the words, but it’d sounded almost like she’d made one up. Then in one quick motion she twisted back toward the archer and released the arrow, dropping it into the notch on the statue’s bow. 

The door to the cave ( _tomb_ , he thought, panicked) screeched and slammed shut with a resounding clang, plunging them into darkness. 

Lee’s head swirled, vertigo taking hold, despite his fixed position, and when it cleared, he opened his eyes. He took in the starry sky, the way the grasses rippled in the wind, the big stone monoliths that glowed with a heavenly light. Then his eyes skipped to Kara. Platinum hair scraped back into a ponytail, body clad in simple cotton pants and a shell in a drab greenish brown, dog tags around her neck. Lee took it all in, his eyes wide as saucers, until finally he couldn’t keep his trap shut any longer.

“What the frak just happened, Starbuck?”

Her face lit up, bright as the stars above, and she lunged for him, tackling him into the grass, her mouth fused to his. Lee didn’t know exactly what was going on. How they’d ended up here, back in the cave on Kobol, but then again he didn’t much care at the moment. Kara was here, solid and warm and kissing him like there was no tomorrow. 

“I waited so long, so many lives. The timing was never right,” she said, words tumbling out breathlessly. “Then finally, gods, I can’t believe it worked! I was so damn scared you’d never remember.”

Lee blinked, not fully following the stream of thoughts. But he'd never seen Kara look at him like this before, so he smiled anyway, unquestionably happy. He lifted his head and kissed her lips again, then tilted his forehead to hers and whispered, “Guess you just won’t be forgotten.”


End file.
